England’s football phone-in shows are filled with laments about overseas ownership, foreign players, and the influence of all-too-powerful agents, but the voices calling in are never from Wolverhampton. That’s because all three of these scourges recently took root at Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club, and the result has been a triumphant return to the Premier League.

Full disclosure: I’m a Wolves fan and have been extremely skeptical of the current setup at Molineux—extremely skeptical right up until the team started playing the most confident, expansive, and imposing football I’ve ever seen while winning the EFL Championship with 99 points. Happy days.

The story begins in July 2016, when a Chinese conglomerate and investment firm named Fosun International bought the team, which was then playing in England’s second division, the Championship. A nerdy-looking 40-something executive named Jeff Shi, who had apparently spearheaded the deal for Fosun was...